Trump, Xi and Putin to hold unprecedented meeting, White House says

The leaders of the US, China and Russia will hold an unprecedented meeting on the sidelines of a major economic summit, the White House has said.

Donald Trump, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin will hold talks on Thursday at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in China's tech hub of Shenzhen.

But analysts have said it's unlikely the gathering of the heads of the world's biggest nuclear powers will lead to major diplomatic breakthroughs.

The symbolic and historic meeting comes at a complex moment in relations between the three countries.

Less than a year after Mr Trump launched a trade war against China, the US president has warmly embraced Xi despite other tensions between the world's biggest economic powers.

In September, Mr Trump hosted Xi in Washington for the Chinese leader's first state visit in more than a decade.

Mr Trump has also forged stronger ties with Mr Putin, even as the Russian president continues his war in Ukraine. US envoys visited Moscow earlier this week as part of talks to end the war.

The US president plans to discuss the war in Iran with his counterparts, despite Beijing and Moscow fostering friendly strategic relationships with Tehran, an unnamed senior US official told reporters.

Mr Trump believes the meeting will further his goal of reaching a three-way agreement on their nuclear arms stockpiles, they said, adding that he also plans to steer away from discussing Ukraine.

The last nuclear arms pact between Russia and the US expired in February, removing limits on the two largest atomic powers for the first time in more than half a century.

When that treaty expired, Mr Trump rejected Russia's push to extend the agreement for another year and called for "a new, improved and modernised" deal that includes China.

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The trilateral meeting is intended to serve as the "beginning of hopefully a conversation" on nuclear disarmament "that can be productive going forward", the US official said.

According to Pentagon estimates, Beijing has an arsenal of 600 warheads - far smaller than stockpiles held by the US and Russia, which are each estimated to have more than 5,000 warheads.

On Friday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said European leaders feared another "Anchorage moment," a reference to the Alaska summit where they were stunned by Mr Trump's overtures to Putin in the absence of Ukrainian or European envoys.

"Please, no surprises," Mr Merz said. "Continue to play in Team Europe and in the team with Ukraine."

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